New site on the way from UNH ‘confessions’ creator

Called “Proclassination,” the site is made up of two parts. The first is set to consist of a social aspect similar to Yik Yak or Reddit. Users will be able to post anonymously and “up vote” what else has been written.

The second part will have an educational theme to it. Students will be able to go in and add their courses and sections. This will create a chat-room-area for students to ask about assignments or upload documents to others in the class, according to Michael Barnard, a junior psychology major who also runs UNH Confessions. These posts will also have the up-vote option as well, but these posts will not be anonymous.

“If there’s a social media website that on the left side, there’s all your social, and then on the right side, it’s all your school, then you would be on the website all night,” Barnard said.

The four-person team also consists of Ethan Stewart, a sophomore computer science major; Jeremy Plsek, a sophomore computer science major; and Alex Carrozzi, a senior IT major.

Though it does consist of many similar elements to the other social networks on campus, the group feels that it’s different enough to still be appealing.

“I would say it mostly depends on how we play it. If we can make it do something that’s just a little bit different, a little bit better … [we can have] hopefully the good parts of all of them,” Stewart said.

Barnard says that they all bring something different to the team. While he focuses primarily on the business aspects of the website, Plsek is a designer, Stewart helps to build the code and Carrozzi has a hand in almost everything.

The four meet once a week for two to three hours, though Carrozzi says that each person probably spends at least five hours working on the website in their free time. The entire process began at the beginning of the 2014 fall semester.

The team has kept quiet about the project over the last few months, but recently put the work into motion after winning a competition hosted by Alpha Loft, which is “an aggressive program” designed to help them design and perfect their business model, according to its website. Based in Portsmouth, the co-working space focused on tech-entrepreneurs, and also has a branch in Durham and Manchester.

At the end of three months, the group will present their final product to a group of investors, media, business leaders, and the public.

In all, Alpha Loft is providing them with roughly $25,000 worth of services, including $5,000 worth of start up capital. The group, however, is getting all of these services for free.

“If they accepted us into (the program), there must be something that they like about us,” Barnard said.

Carrozzi says they have most of the social aspect of the website working. But with the launch day still months away, the group plans on just focusing on making sure everything is perfect for then and working with Alpha Loft in order to make sure everything is ready for the launch.

“Obviously you want to expand,” Barnard said. “In order to capitalize on something, there has to be room to expand.”

“We’ll see where it takes us, but right now, we’re just trying to launch it,” Barnard added.